Today, January 13th, is National Peach Melba Day.

Created in either 1892 or 1893 by the chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel in London, this dish was made to honour Nellie Melba, an Australian soprano who had been performing in the opera Lohengrin by Wagner at Covent Garden. The dish was served at a party held by the Duke of Orléans in her honour.

The dessert consists of peaches, raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. The original dish was served on top of a swan-shaped ice sculpture, although this is usually omitted these days.

Image: By Robbie Sproule (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons